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Apigenin, identified as 4′,5,7‐trihydroxyflavone, is a natural flavonoid compound present in a variety of fruits, vegetables, functional foods, and medicinal plants. Many studies have revealed that apigenin has the cytostatic and cytotoxic effects on the various cancer cells, prevents the atherogenesis, hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy, ischemia/reperfusion‐induced heart injury, and autoimmune myocarditis, protects the chemicals‐ and ischemia/reperfusion‐induced liver injury, inhibits the asthma, bleomycin‐induced pulmonary fibrosis, abnormal behavior, and oxygen and glucose deprivation/reperfusion‐induced neural cell apoptosis, improves the pancreatitis, type 2 diabetes and its complication, osteoporosis, and collagen‐induced arthritis. These biological effects suggest that apigenin may be a potential health promoting agent. In the article, we will review these effects and possible biochemical mechanisms. Practical applications Apigenin‐rich chamomile, propolis, and garlic oil have been used in the prevention ane cure of hypertension and chemicals‐induced liver injury as food supplements. However, their bioactive components and mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. Apigenin may be a common effective component and play an important role in the process of therapy. In addition, apigenin itself may also be considered as a potential functional food, but the further development will be needed to apply to the prevention and treatment of some‐related diseases in the future.

PurposeSmall cell carcinoma of esophagus (SCEC) is characterized by high malignancy and early metastasis. Although the morbidity of SCEC is very low, few studies of patients with SCEC have been conducted in China, there are no sufficient studies of SCEC conducted and reported in the existing published works, and the choices of treatment remain controversial. In this work, we aim to study the clinical characteristics of SCEC, and explore the corresponding treatment and prognosis through retrospective analysis.Material and MethodsThe original articles were identified through the leading digital libraries in China in which the terms “esophagus or esophageal” and “small cell esophageal carcinoma” appeared from 2005 to 2009, 1,176 eligible cases were reviewed for clinical data. Analysis of survival was conducted using the Kaplan–Meier method, and differences were compared using the log-rank test.ResultsOne thousand one hundred seventy-six eligible cases were analyzed; the median age of patients was 57 years, with a male-to-female ratio of 2.4:1. The number of SCEC accounted for 1.26 % of esophageal cancer treated in the same period. Of the tumors, 89.7 % were located in mid- and lower thoracic esophagus. The average tumor length was 5.4 cm (0.5–17 cm). The median overall survival was 11.1 months for all patients. The 1-, 2-, 3-, and 5-year average overall survival rates of 469 patients was 51.1, 25.5, 13.2, 7.9 %, respectively. The median survival time for LD patients who received systemic treatment was 16.8 m, whereas for those who received local treatment (surgery), the median survival time was 10.1 m; the median survival time for ED patients who received systemic treatment was 7.4 m, compared with 5.8 m for those who received sole treatment (chemotherapy or radiotherapy).ConclusionsSCEC is a tumor characterized by high malignancy and early metastasis. Although our retrospective analysis cannot provide definitive conclusions on the optimal treatment modality for SCEC, however, our results suggest that systemic treatment combined with surgical resection plays a major role in the therapy of SCEC, systemic therapy may be an effective approach for the treatment of SCEC, and randomized, prospective, multicenter studies are needed to identify optimal treatment modalities for SCEC

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For nickel-based catalysts, in-situ formed nickel oxyhydroxide has been generally believed as the origin for anodic biomass electro-oxidations. However, rationally understanding the catalytic mechanism still remains challenging. In this work, we demonstrate that NiMn hydroxide as the anodic catalyst can enable methanol-to-formate electro-oxidation reaction (MOR) with a low cell-potential of 1.33/1.41 V at 10/100 mA cm−2, a Faradaic efficiency of nearly 100% and good durability in alkaline media, remarkably outperforming NiFe hydroxide. Based on a combined experimental and computational study, we propose a cyclic pathway that consists of reversible redox transitions of NiII-(OH)2/NiIII-OOH and a concomitant MOR. More importantly, it is proved that the NiIII-OOH provides combined active sites including NiIII and nearby electrophilic oxygen species, which work in a cooperative manner to promote either spontaneous or non-spontaneous MOR process. Such a bifunctional mechanism can well account for not only the highly selective formate formation but also the transient presence of NiIII-OOH. The different catalytic activities of NiMn and NiFe hydroxides can be attributed to their different oxidation behaviors. Thus, our work provides a clear and rational understanding of the overall MOR mechanism on nickel-based hydroxides, which is beneficial for advanced catalyst design.